Election scene in separatist-infested Kashmir frightening things not that rosy for BJP in marginalized Jammu – Part 1

Congress, NC, PDP, and J&K Apni Party have left none in any doubt whatsoever that their whole agenda is as subversive as it is unsettling

Hari Om

August 25, 2024

Congress, NC, PDP, and J&K Apni Party have left none in any doubt whatsoever that their whole agenda is as subversive as it is unsettling

Negating the August 2019 reforms

The Election Commission of India obeyed the December 11, 2023 Supreme Court direction on Assembly elections and on August 20, announced three-phase Assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It’s clear that the powers-that-be at the Centre and in Jammu and Kashmir overlooked the fact that the Assembly polls would automatically mean the re-empowerment of those very forces who had jeopardized the nation’s vital interests in the region; promoted the Pakistani sinister cause in Jammu and Kashmir; helped shielded and patronized separatists and jihadists of all varieties; destroyed Hindu-majority Jammu province and Buddhist-majority Ladakh socially, religiously, economically and politically; rid Kashmir of all Hindus, Jammu Dogras and Ladakhi Buddhists; left no stone unturned to create a Kashmir-like situation in Jammu province to accomplish what Pakistan failed to accomplish; and loot and fleece the Indian exchequer. The need of the nation and exigency of the time was to limit the area of Jihad by separating Jammu province from Kashmir and further break the backbone of Kashmir Jihad by converting Kashmir into a Chandigarh-type Union Territory, but, sadly, the authorities thought otherwise and adopted a course that has all the potential of negating the August 5-6, 2019 reform scheme under which Articles 35A and 370 were abrogated, the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir bifurcated into Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh and the whole region brought under the ambit of the Indian Constitution.

The announcement of Assembly elections was fraught with dangerous ramifications. It was bound to upset the nation’s applecart in the strategic region and provide a God-sent opportunity to the break-India forces, including the National Conference, the Congress, the People’s Democratic Party, and the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party, to further muddy the Indian waters in the Union Territory or pose a live threat to the nation’s security, unity, integrity and sovereignty. And, it did happen.

Manifestos of subversion

What happened in Kashmir after August 20 in just four days? On August 21, the National Conference of Separatist Abdullahs released its election manifesto. It, among other things, vouched for:

Dialogue with Pakistan to decide the political future of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Restoration of Articles 35A and 370, separate flag, offices of elected Sadar-e-Riyasat, as against the office of Governor, and office of Wazir-e-Azam, as against the office of Chief Minister, and revival of Jammu and Kashmir Constitutional Act of 1939, which became a story of the past only in January 1957.
Resumption of the practice of Darbar move and cross-LoC trade.
Release of all separatists.
Evocation of Public Safety Act and anti-terror laws.
Term Hari Parbat in Srinagar as Koh-e-Maran and Shankaracharya Hill in Srinagar as Takht-i-Sulaiman.
Promise to legalize the illegally constructed colonies in Jammu and elsewhere. To be more precise, the National Conference promised pre-1953 politico-constitutional status or a step short of complete independence.

The very next day, the Congress and the National Conference leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Farooq Abdullah, and Omar Abdullah, met at Srinagar and stitched a pre-poll alliance. The statements which were made by Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge in Srinagar and Jammu left none in any doubt that the Congress and the National Conference were on the same page as far as the political future of Jammu and Kashmir and Centre-State relations were concerned.

The same day (August 22), the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party of Altaf Bukhari considered a B-team of the BJP or the “King’s Party”, also released its election manifesto in Srinagar. It was almost a carbon copy of the National Conference’s election manifesto.

On August 24, 2024, the People’s Democratic Party released its election manifesto and made a statement that only served to suggest that it was committed to contest elections on the plank of self-rule: Indo-Pak joint control over Jammu and Kashmir, demilitarisation, dual currency, Islamic banking, open borders, cross-LoC trade and so on. It, among other things, also promised to restore Article 370, lift the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami, release all separatists, and provide free legal aid to separatists. The manifesto further promised the advocacy of “diplomatic initiatives between India and Pakistan, emphasizing conflict resolution, confidence-building measures, and regional cooperation” and the establishment of “full connectivity across the LoC for trade and social exchange.” Not just this. It also stated that the party will strive for the “revocation of Public Safety Act, UAPA and Enemy Act to put an end to unjust arrests of political and social activists, journalists, civil society and concerned citizens” and it’s committed to “the revocation of AFSPA.” But more than that, it told the Congress and the National Conference that it would withdraw from the contest if they accept its agenda that requires “resolution of the Kashmir issue.”

The short point is that the Congress, the National Conference, the People’s Democratic Party, and the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party have left none in any doubt whatsoever that their whole agenda is as subversive as it is unsettling and that they if came to power, would create a serious problem for the nation and cause a grave threat to the very existence of the Jammu Dogras. Indeed, the election scene in Kashmir is very frightening.

Islamists’ rule, Jammu’s slavery

It needs to be underlined that Kashmir, which is over 99 percent Muslim, will return 47 members to the 90-member assembly and all will be Muslims. All the 47 seats will be shared between the Kashmiri parties. Besides, these Kashmiri parties could also win eight to ten seats in Jammu province, all Muslim-dominated. In other words, the Kashmiri Muslim parties will have as many as 57 MLAs. What would be the immediate result? The immediate result would be the establishment of a 100 percent Islamist government. The other immediate result would be the slavery of Jammu province.

Home Minister’s 10 questions

It’s heartening to note that Union Home Minister Amit Shah on August 23 took cognizance of the National Conference’s subversive election manifesto and dangerous alliance between the Congress and the National Conference and asked the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to make the stand of the Congress on the National Conference’s manifesto public. In fact, he asked 10 straight questions to him. The questions around the National Conference manifesto were:

Does the Congress support the National Conference’s promise of a separate flag for Jammu and Kashmir?
Do Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party support the JKNC’s decision to restore Article 370 and 35A, and thereby push Jammu and Kashmir back into an era of unrest and terrorism?
Does the Congress support promoting separatism again by engaging in dialogue with Pakistan instead of Kashmir’s youth?
Do the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi support the National Conference’s decision to start ‘LoC Trade’ with Pakistan, thereby nurturing terrorism and its ecosystem across the border?
Does Congress support reinstating relatives of those involved in terrorism and stone-pelting into government jobs, thereby bringing back terrorism, extremism, and the era of strikes?
The alliance has exposed the Congress party’s anti-reservation stance. Does Congress support the JKNC’s promise to end reservations for Dalits, Gujjars, Bakarwals, and Pahadi communities, thereby inflicting injustice upon them?
Does the Congress want ‘Shankaracharya Hill’ to be known as ‘Takht-e-Suleiman,’ and ‘Hari Hill’ as ‘Koh-e-Maran’?
Does the Congress support the politics of pushing Jammu and Kashmir’s economy back into corruption and handing it over to selected Pakistan-supported families?
Does the Congress party support the JKNC’s politics of discrimination between Jammu and the Valley?
Do the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi support the JKNC’s divisive politics of granting autonomy to Kashmir?”

Not only the Union Home Minister, UP and Uttrakhand chief ministers, Yogi Adityanath and Pushkar Singh Dhami, former Union Minister Smriti Irani, and many other BJP leaders also tore into the Congress for its alliance with the National Conference and dismissed both the parties as subversive outfits.

All the questions posed by the Union Home Minister were relevant and Rahul Gandhi needs to answer so that the nation knows what the stand of the Congress is on the Indian Constitution and relations between the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of the country. It’s, however, a different story that the National Conference was a part of the NDA during the time of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah’s son, Omar Abdullah, was Minister of State in the External Affairs Ministry and the BJP shared power with the People’s Democratic Party between March 2015 and June 2018.

Plus point

No wonder then that the Congress and the Kashmiri parties like the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party plus parties like the Aam Adami Party have been seeking to counter the BJP’s onslaught by referring to the alliances between the BJP and the National Conference and between the former and the People’s Democratic Party. However, the plus point for the BJP is that it withdrew its support to the Mehbooba Mufti-led government in June 2018 on the grounds that it had become a threat to national security and its policies were pro-terrorist and pro-separatist and anti-Jammu.

To be continued…

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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